Willem Kieft

Willem Kieft (September 1597-27 September 1647) was Director of New Netherland from 1638 to 1647, succeeding Wouter van Twiller and preceding Peter Stuyvesant.

Biography
Willem Kieft was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1597, and he became Director of New Netherland in 1638. He tried to tax and then drive out Native Americans, and he ordered attacks on Pavonia and Corlears Hook on 25 February 1643, in which 120 Indian men, women, and children were massacred. From 1643 to 1645, the Dutch fought the Indians in Kieft's War, and he was fired by the Dutch West India Company in 1647. He was shipwrecked off Swansea, Wales during the return journey to Holland.